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Contributors

Christa Terry
Christa is an author, editor, and blogging consultant whose writing has appeared in magazines, newspapers, and on hundreds of websites. Her enormously popular blog, Manolo for the Brides (which receives roughly 20,000 visitors per week) blossomed into iDo: Planning Your Wedding with Nothing But 'Net, a wedding planning guide published by Simon & Schuster. Christa has lent her writing and editing talents to a wide range of well known for-profit clients, including Curt Schilling's 38 Studios, Inc. and Daily Media, Inc., as well as not-for-profit organizations like Graham's Foundation. But is that all there is to life? A big part of Christa's fascination with voluntary simplicity and the simple living movement lies in the fact that she has to work, yet wants nothing more than to be able to spend more time with her husband and her daughter.

Tiffany Jarvis
I'm a mother, wife, pregnant woman, teacher, team leader, department chair, and a doctoral student--otherwise known as a Ridiculously Busy Person. When I'm not running myself into the ground, I'm a reader, writer, crafter, foodie, and Rock Band geek. The idea of simple living is not just appealing to me; at this point, it's a matter of survival.

Julia
Julia is a wife, mother, cognitive neuroscientist, social media strategist, and lifelong generalist who hopes to save the world.

James Trotta
James Trotta is an assistant professor at Hankuk University of Foreign Studies. He's happiest when playing with his wife and dogs and when helping students. He really likes it when people recognize his brilliance and when people laugh at his jokes. Next he likes saving stray dogs, traveling, and writing.

Mitch Harper
By day Mitch is an electronic medical record systems specialist and workflow analyst for his local hospital and its extended health network. By night he's a technophile, philosopher, counselor, audiophile, musician, home theater enthusiast, gamer and has been known to throw down on the dance floor from time to time. But one thing's for sure, that by day or night, he is inundated with more information and demands than one can hope to process effectively. This leaves him feeling as though he can never catch up with where he thinks he ought to be. So for the next 72+ days, Mitch looks forward to seeing how much of his life is truly the same white noise he strives to eliminate in his career, and what life might look like when we have the time, energy, focus and organization to pursue the things we're truly passionate about.

Audrey Busta-Peck
Audrey is a stay-at-home mom, a photographer, a graphic designer, a curious cook, an armchair anthropologist with a degree, an avid reader, a crafty mama, a blossoming children’s book author and illustrator, a lover of the outdoors, an occasional dieter and an overenthusiastic blogger with a mild case of OCD; in short, a regular Josephine. Her itchiness to de-clutter her life leads her to suspect the 72 Ideas Manifesto was written just for her, but she’s scatter-brained enough to realize she won’t be doing the list in order and might not be able to achieve everything. Thank goodness the Manifesto isn’t a step-by-step set of bomb diffusing instructions!

Rebecca Hains
Rebecca wears many hats: professor, writer, singer, mom. She is an assistant professor of communications at Salem State University, where she teaches media studies and advertising. She often publishes scholarly essays about girls' media culture, which means that when she and her toddler watched My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic on YouTube all summer, it was for research. A fan of creating lists, Rebecca likes chocolate, fruit, cheese, and pretty handmade things. She probably spends too much time reading blogs.

Sarah Fulmer
Sarah is a self employed Clutter Consultant/Crap Whisperer with a passionate interest in teaching people how to look at their Stuff differently; how to decide what they want, eliminate the crap and love their space. She is also a mama, playwright, story teller, aspiring comedian and fancy dancer.

I'm a writer and editor living on Massachusetts' North Shore with my little family of three (that's including me), and I try to keep our lives relatively simple, as compared to the traditional "American Dream." I know there's no one perfect roadmap to simplifying your life, but Zen Habits has compiled a list that represents a pretty good start: The Simple Living Manifesto, a list of ideas that should help anyone trying to lead a simpler life.

Starting on 8/15/11, I and my fellow contributors will be working through the ideas in the Simple Living Manifesto one day at a time for a period of 72 days. This is where we will write about our experiences, whether we're successful, we fail, or we find that the day's idea is impossible. Expect honesty, and feel free to participate. I've created an open Facebook event where people can sign up to join the 72 Ideas in 72 Days project. If you're interested in blogging along or having your relevant posts linked, email me at christa d terry at gmail.